Bad celebrity endorsements

OK, so it's not even a celebrity endorsement. The celebrities, in this case, happen to own the business.

In 11/29's Idaho Statesman, Fairmont Tamarack, a luxury resort community two hours from Boise, ran an ad highlighting investors Andre Agassi and Stefanie Graf. The tennis legends are quoted as saying, across the top of the ad in the largest font used in the ad, "We're creating a special home in Idaho....and one for you too." I didn't redact any language; the ellipsis is part of the quote.

This might fly in the Wall Street Journal, but it's downright insulting to any Idahoan (the assumed audience for Idaho's largest daily). To me, this reads like, "We're building a super-opulent payground for us to vacation and make some dough, but don't you worry--there'll be room for you as well. Assuming you can afford it, of course."

The ad violates a central tenet of effective marketing/communications: Take the focus off of yourself and instead focus on the consumer/customer/target audience. In this case, the target is but an afterthought ("....and one for you too.")

And it smacks of just the sort of patronizing, elitist, nouveau colonialist attitude so many developers take when building in this rapidly growing state. Thanks, Andre and Steffi, but I've already got a special home in Idaho. And no, I'm not just grousing because I can't afford your mountain getaways, "priced from the mid $700s to over $5 million." I'm grousing because if you can sell homes for $5 million, certainly you can spend the time and the money to create a decent ad.